Brilliant, but NOT a Zombie movie

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2008)

Let's get one thing straight first of all. Many reviewers have referred to 'zombies' in this film. It's an easy mistake to make but does colour one's opinion before they have even seen this genuinely frightening tale. Zombies are dead people bought back to life. The 'monsters' in 28 Days Later are still very much alive but infected with the 'Rage Virus', a strange man-made virus that looks like a nasty mixture of rabies and ebola (especially in the way it's passed on).
28 Days Later ranks as one of the most disturbing and genuinely unsettling films I have ever seen, a horror story in the true sense of the word. Other's have drawn parallels with Biohazard, the Romero 'zombie' series and Resident Evil. However, if this film has any real debt for it's inspiration, it must lie with the equally disturbing BBC sci-fi/environmental horror serials of the 1970's: Survivors, The Mad Death, and The Day Of The Triffids. The scene where Jim wakes up in hospital and then walks out into a depopulated and devastated London owes so much to John Duttine's similar journey in Douglas Livingston's superb adaptation of Triffids.
What made this such an unsettling tale was it's relative believability compared with most horror tales. One can imagine the 'Rage Virus' doing it's worst in real life and anyone who can remember how fast the panic over last Summer's Foot and Mouth outbreak spread can identify with much of this story. Viruses, from Ebola to HIV to Rabies and others are genuinely frightening because the spread so fast and infect at will without us puny humans being able to do much to prevent it. While 'Rage' is purely fictional and the premise of man against nature is an old plot, Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have brought more than a few new wrinkles to the table. Together with Matthew Tildsley's superb production design and excellent performances from the cast, 28 Days Later is an effective and chilling film that MUST be seen. Once seen, it won't be forgotten easily. Especially if you watch back to back with the equally impressive (although slightly sillier) sequel 28 Weeks Later.